We Share His Glory (17:20–26)

We Share His Glory (17:20–26)

Here our Lord directs our attention to the future. He prays for us who live today, for the whole church through all the ages. He has prayed already about security and sanctity; now the burden of His prayer is about unity. He wants His people to have a spiritual unity that is like the oneness of the Father and the Son. True Christians may be in different fellowships, but they all belong to the Lord and to one another.

The disciples had often been selfish, competitive, and disunited among themselves. This must have grieved the Savior’s heart. What does He feel when He looks at the state of the church today?

What is the foundation of real Christian unity? The glory of Jesus Christ and His person and work (John 17:2-5). He has already given us His glory and promises we will experience that glory even more when we get to heaven! True believers may look like anyone else on the outside, but they have God’s glory on the inside. Christian harmony is not based on the externals of the flesh but on the internals and eternals of the Spirit in the inner man. We must look beyond the elements of our first birth, race, color, abilities, etc., and build our fellowship on the essentials of our new birth.

We have His glory now in us (John 17:22; see also Rom. 8:29), and we shall one day have His glory in heaven (John 17:24). As we grow in the Lord, the glory within us grows and expresses itself in what we say and do, and how we say and do it. They do not see us and glorify us; they see the Lord and glorify Him (Matt. 5:16; 1 Cor. 6:19–20).

One of the things that impresses the world most is the love Christians have for one another and how they live together in harmony. It is this witness that our Lord wants in the world “that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me” (John 17:21). The lost world cannot see God, but they can see Christians, and what they see in us shapes their belief about God. If they see love and unity, they will believe that God is love. If they see hate and division, they will reject the gospel message.

Jesus has told us that some will believe because of our witness (John 17:20), but we must ensure our witness is true and loving. Some Christians are prosecuting attorneys and judges instead of faithful witnesses, and all their behavior does is turn lost sinners away from the Savior.

There is every reason why believers ought to love one another and live in unity. We all trust the same Savior and share the same glory. Someday we shall have the same heaven! We have one Father and one work: to tell a lost world that Jesus Christ alone saves us from sin. We believe the same truth, even if we may hold different views on minor matters of doctrine, and we walk in the same example that Jesus has set for His people: to live a holy life. Yes, believers do differ, but we have much more in common, and these similarities should encourage us to love one another and promote true spiritual unity.

I have frequently used John 17:24 as a text for funeral meditations. How do we know Christians are going to heaven? We know Christians are going to heaven because of the price Jesus paid (1 Thess. 5:9–10), the promise Jesus made (John 14:1–6), and the prayer Jesus prayed (John 17:24). God always answers the prayer of His Son, and we know that believers who die go to heaven to see the glory of God.

There are no petitions in John 17:25–26. Jesus just reported to His Father about the ministry in the world, and He made several declarations that are important to us. He said the world did not know the Father, but we believers did, for the Son had revealed the Father to us. The world certainly has many opportunities to know the Father, but it prefers to continue in blindness and hardness of heart. As Christians, our work is to witness to the lost world and share God’s saving message.

He also mentions the importance of truth and love in the church. Believers know God’s name (nature) and even share in the divine nature. Jesus stresses that truth and love must go hand in hand (see Eph. 4:15). It is rightly said that truth without love is brutality, but love without truth is hypocrisy. The mind increases by receiving truth, but the heart increases by giving love. Pride can come from knowledge (1 Cor. 8:1), and misguided decisions can come from love alone (see Phil. 1:9-10). Christian love is not to be blind!

As you look at this prayer (John 17), you see the spiritual priorities that were on the Savior’s heart—the glory of God, the sanctity of God’s people, the unity of the church, and the ministry of sharing the gospel with a lost world. Today it would be wise to focus on those same priorities.

We will all have to give an account of our ministry one day. It is a sobering thought that we shall stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ and present our “final report.”

I trust that we shall be able to say, “I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do” (John 17:4).